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Chapter 24

Translation

What we look forward to, does not exist;
What we chase after, will not prevail.
Seeing your self, is not honest;
Of course, this is not evident.
Attacking your self is without merit;
Self pity does not endure.
Such ways are called surplus food and superfluous forms.
Matters of the outside world, perhaps fierce,
Hence one who has the way does not dwell in them.

Third Pass: Chapter of the Month8/4/2018

Corrections?

None this time

Reflections:

What we look forward to does not exist;
What we chase after will not prevail.

‘Does not exist’ comes with a caveat seeing as how looking forward only exists in imagination. And what is imagination really? Fundamentally, it is a cognitive projection of our needs and fears. It is what we dream of having or avoiding. Yet, it is easy to give the virtual reality we imagine as being the equal of our visceral ‘here and now’ reality. We flee our imaginary tigers; we pursue our imaginary pots of gold.

It takes a while of living to realize fully that what we chase after will not prevail. Part of this is due to the nature of changing conditions. A subtler side of this quixotic quest lies in the natural fact we lack an innate instinct for appreciation. Yes, we can appreciate things, but only when we are contemporaneously conscious of the opposite. Once I forget, I’m off chasing again. The grass is always going to feel greener ‘over there’. Such is the instinct that drives animals to hunt and gather enthusiastically. It serves survival. Civilized circumstances make this natural ‘grass is greener’ instinct more stressful and so much less balanced.

Seeing self is not honest threw me off today. I wondered, “What is honest exactly, and what is seeing self really mean?” Here is an example of the benefit of referring to the various synonyms the Chinese characters embody, i.e., Seeing self is not honest; =自是者不彰 = self (one’s own; certainly) see (catch sight of_ appear; become visible) (者) no (not) bright (clear; honest; know).In other words: Seeing self is not know. Or perhaps, Seeing self is ignorant.

‘Attacking self is without merit’ and ‘Self pity does not endure’ are the inevitable consequences of seeing self. When the self we see is a jumbled mixture of arbitrary and artificial labels, we easily tangle ourselves into a competition between who we think we are and who we think we want or ought to be. Much of this is a result of the hierarchical pressures we face to find our ‘perfect’ niche. (For a deeper view, see The Tradeoff)

Line 5 offers another occasion to check the synonyms—the literal meanings of the characters. The words “withoutmerit” break down this way:

One problem with the word merit can lie in the morality it could convey, as in meritorious deeds. Considering the synonyms helps. For example, Attacking self is without result, achievement. In other words, it is futile, useless, a waste of energy and time. Yet, Seeing self drives us to attack. Again, no wonder some long for what chapter 52 describes as, Already knowing its offspring, return to observe the origin. Nearly rising beyond oneself.

Such ways are called surplus food and superfluous forms.
Such matters of the outside world are perhaps loathsome.

Why are we so drawn to what, in the natural wild, would seem obviously to be surplus food and superfluous forms? The fact is, we are biologically drawn to pursue the reality we perceive. We chase the superfluous contents of our expectations and imaginations. And in ignorance we do just that. It is not that ignorance is the problem; it is the fact that we are ignorant of our ignorance. As chapter 71 advised, Realizing I don’t’ know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease. Only a lifetime of chewing on experience seems to bring us closer to that realization… if we are fortunate! But, is it really fortunate? The cost of realizing this is the realization of the widespread disease afflicting humanity. Every advantage comes with a cost. I call it natural, cosmic justice. Free anything is foolish illusion born of wishful thinking.

Hence, one who has the way does not dwell in them.

This last line, unfortunately can make it sound like a prescriptive ‘should’. It helps to see it just as stated. It can help to think, If and when one has the way… In other words, one cannot willfully choose tonot dwell in them, in order to have the way. Having the way happens by de fault when we are not dwelling on anything. In other words, having the way is a pleasant symptom of not dwelling in them!

Everything that lies beyond our control is, “By the grace of God”, as the Christians say, or “Insha’Allah (if God wills)” as Islam puts it. I suppose non-theistic paths could say, “by the grace of nature”. One of the benefits of losing my belief in free will has been my sense that everything in life is ‘by the grace of nature’… or God, if you like. After all, God is just a fancy word for nature. Or is it the other way around? Of course, God degrades once you name it; to paraphrase chapter 1,

Second Pass: Work in Progress6/02/2013

Issues:

For this chapter, I just needed to remove a few superfluous comas and the prefix ‘your‘ from yourself in several lines. I figure why not stick to the simplest literal meaning. This character in question, zì (自) means: self; oneself; one’s own; certainly; of course; from; since, depending on context and other duel character uses. We can see that ‘yourself‘ is not at all wrong; it just presents an overly narrow view of self in aspect here; it is oneself and much more. It really helps to plumb what we mean by self…

I’m looking at this character in a larger context, more along the lines of zìrán (or zìran) (自然). Rán (然) means: right; correct; so; like that and together as zìrán mean: natural; free from affectation, at ease; natural world; nature; naturally; in the ordinary course of events; of course. This zì (自) is more along the lines of true self, or original self, rather than the various nuances that culture imparts.

Commentary:

What we look forward to does not exist, so why do we spend so many of our waking moments with the mind’s eye looking to the future? For the same reason, what we look backward upon does not exist also.

The best moments of my life are when I wake to each moment as though I were waking from sleep. The time I spend with my mind in the future or the past is sleep-time compared to being awake to the flow of the moment. It is sobering to realize the extent our thinking and wandering (and wondering) mind can dull or suppress the flow of awareness. Awareness is repeatedly hung up in whirlpools and eddies, and is only pulled into mainstream consciousness when novelty stimulates (especially worry and desire related).

That’s the tradeoff: Thought in exchange for an ’empty free-flowing mind’. However, is this really true? Each condition produces its counterpart according to the Taoist view. Every river has its eddies and its mainstream current. Why should the river of life, of awareness, be any different? So perhaps there is not all that much different between other animals and ourselves. Line 3‘s, Seeing self is not honest points to the blindness inflicted by a self-centric awareness. Then, an animal’s awareness dulls and they become easy prey for the predator. Then, our awareness dulls and we become easy prey to the vortexes of imagination. I suppose this is especially true now that we have eliminated all the predators that used to snatch us—now we must serve both roles in nature… see, Self-Predation.

Suggested Revision:

What we look forward to does not exist;
What we chase after will not prevail.
Seeing self is not honest;
Of course, this is not evident.
Attacking self is without merit;
Self pity is does not endure.
Such ways are called surplus food and superfluous forms.
Such matters of the outside world are perhaps loathsome.
Hence, one who has the way does not dwell in them.

First Pass: Chapter of the Week06/27/2009

I’ve long seen this chapter as pointing out symptoms that reveal one’s deeper reality (i.e., underlying causes). For example, D.C. Lau translation says ‘He who brags will have no merit‘. This implies that bragging causes one to have no merit. Seeing it that way is putting the cart before the horse. Bragging is simply a way to compensate for feeling a lack of merit (a sense of self worth). In other words, we counterbalance our inner reality with external opposites. The more extreme the inner, the more extreme the external ‘counterbalance’ one can notice. That is, provided one knows this counterbalancing process runs the show. There’s the hitch. The tendency judge a book by its cover blinds us to underlying causes.

Interestingly, the original says: ‘self (one’s own, certainly) fell (cut down, strike, attack) (thing) nothing (without, not, regardless of) merit (achievement)’. How faithful is D.C. Lau’s translation? A translation is, in part, an interpretation arising from one’s own world view. I’m guessing D.C. Lau holds the view that ‘he who brags will have no merit’. The word will gives the time line, i.e., this will produce that. On the other hand, simply saying ‘He who brags is without merit’ is closer to the original and more vague as to which causes which.

Again, the original states: self (one’s own, certainly) fell (cut down, strike, attack) (thing) nothing (without, not, regardless of) merit (achievement). D.C. Lau translated this as ‘He who brags will have no merit‘ while last time I translated this as In self attack, we achieve nothing. Let’s break that down: When one achieves nothing, one often attacks oneself (self blame). That is a more symptomatic point of view. The achieving nothing precedes the self blame. Of course, if one is always attacking one’s self, one will not achieve much of anything. I suppose both are true. The fundamental cause though, is a sense of lacking. This drives self blame which in turn inhibits achievement. It can become a vicious circle leading one to seek therapy or booze!

This time I am inclined to put it this way: Cutting down one’s self is without merit, or perhaps, Cutting down one’s self regardless of one’s merit. Both sound reasonable. The former says there is no merit in demeaning yourself. The later says just the opposite in a ‘positive’ way. To put it another way, take the lower position regardless of any meritorious achievements.

While I rather prefer the later, ‘positive’ view, I went with: Attacking your self is without merit. This illustrates the role one’s own world view plays in ‘understanding’ the Tao Te Ching. At best, in truth, you only end up ‘understanding’ your own world view a bit more broadly. In this case, I have two opposing ways to ‘understand’ it. The bottom line: I can not learn what I do not ‘know’ already for the learning is a function of what is already within my current world view. Goodness, what a radical view! It’s something Chuang Tzu might have liked.

The ‘stand on tiptoe (look forward to) (thing) not stand (found; exist; live); step (stride; go beyond) (thing) not go (be current; prevail; do; competent) ‘ also raises the question of which causes which. I experience it this way: not existing in the here and now causes me to look forward; not being current causes me to go beyond. Again, this easily becomes a vicious circle. The more I look forward the less here and now I am; the less here and now I am, the more I look forward to… foreknowledge

We must be innately set up to see the symptoms we see, not as the symptoms they are, but as causes. I suppose this is biologically more expedient survival wise, especially for species that don’t think. That way an animal need not sweat reality’s details, but simply react to how reality appears. The downside for humans is that we fail to get to the bottom of ‘things’. ‘Thing’ being the mountains we make out of the mole holes we see. Regarding what I see ‘out there’ as merely a symptom of something ‘in here’ helps me get deeper toward the bottom of ‘things’, and so avoid the vicious circle my mind can sometimes lead me into.